As followers of Jesus Christ, God is in the process of transforming us into the image of Christ Himself from glory to glory. He didn't save us to make a better version of us. 

This transformation doesn't happen without the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel. 

From the very beginning of our new life in Christ, the word of God has brought confrontation into our lives. We were first convicted of our selfish, self-serving sinful lives, revealing our hopelessness and lostness without Christ. 

Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. What He started He will finish, but not without confronting the self-righteousness of our flesh. Our flesh will not give in without a fight. 

The Apostle Paul stated that he saw a different law in his members waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin which was in his members.

Paul also said that he died daily to his flesh. Sanctification and transformation will not happen without the confrontation of the truth confronting our pride and sinfulness. 

Avoiding the confrontation for comfort and convenience will only deter our transformation. Salvation is a free gift but transformation will always cost you something. 

Men's discipleship is suffering for a number of reasons. But one of the foundational issues is our lack of love for one another and our fear of confrontation. 

Many men are struggling and suffering in silence. They are drifting from the place God has called them to, and no one cares enough to go after them. 

Men have allowed some sin to remain in their life, and because of the guilt and shame associated with it, feel trapped and alone in their brokenness. 

In Galatians chapter six we are given the admonition to restore that man who is caught in that trespass, whatever that trespass may be. It calls out to those who are spiritual to be an instrument of restoration. 

A spiritual man is not a perfect man, but a man who desires to walk by the Spirit, with a heart of love, gentleness, and grace. God is the One who restores! We as spiritual men are to be faithful in the moment, with the man that God has placed in front of us. We are to make the initiative by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by faith, watch the power of healing grace do its work.

Evil is the darkness that pervades our whole society! There is no place to escape from it. From wars between nations to the hostility that resides in many of our homes.

Parents try to protect their children from it, and communities attempt to use law enforcement to curtail it. Churches preach against it and politicians create more laws to legislate against it. 

Evil was given birth in the garden of Eden and continues to be handed down to every new generation. Evil is a heart issue. Evil is anything we do that ignores and lives outside of what God created us to be. Evil is any form of unbelief! 

God is love. The opposite of love is not hate, but selfishness. When we live selfishly, we open the door for evil to prevail. The majority of our attempts to curtail evil are focused on the words, weapons, addictions, and the divisive categories we put each other in.

If we do not deal with the selfishness, unfaithfulness, and unbelieving hearts that we have, the darkness will continue, and evil will destroy everything in its path.

Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel are our only hope! 

I've been married long enough to know that when I get that look from my wife, without her saying a word, she is saying, "are you really going out looking like that?"

I think I look just fine, but I know if I'm going to leave the house I'm going to have to at least change the shirt that I'm wearing, especially if I'm going somewhere with her! 

As Christians, we can become really comfortable with our casual Christian walk and lifestyle, but the Holy Spirit is saying, "are you really going to represent Me in the world you are living in looking like that?"

There are two main outfits (if I can use this analogy) that we can put on as Christians. We can put on the righteousness of Christ, that He has given to us through His finished work on the cross, or we can put on our self-righteousness, as we continue attempting to prove we are okay and acceptable to God.

To us, they can appear indistinguishable, but to God, they are so far apart. Let's discover what the Word of God has to say about these two outfits, and how we can tell which one we have on.

On our journey through the Beatitudes, we have come to the place where many people sitting in the pews will most likely get off the bus. 

When Jesus says that we are blessed when we are persecuted, many begin to squirm in their seats, and their minds begin to go off into never-never land as they attempt to block out the truths of our faith journey. 

When you and I walk in the life that has been described in Matthew chapter 5, it's not a matter if we will be persecuted, but when.

Jesus said that if the world hated Him it will also hate those of us who are following after Him. The darker and more distant our world gets from the life that Jesus calls us to live, we can expect the persecution to increase.  

Here is where I believe comes the greatest falling away from the faith that the church encounters. It's that place where we become complacent and lukewarm. 

In our attempts to avoid persecution, we compromise on the foundational truths given to us in the Sermon on the Mount. 

All of the attributes of the Beatitudes culminate here at the crossroads of faith and persecution. Will you get off the bus or continue the journey in following Jesus Christ?

All I want is a little peace and quiet! Have you ever heard that said, or maybe you are thinking that right now! 

Our problem with peace is that the peace that Jesus speaks about and the peace that the majority of people are looking for are most likely not the same. 

We read in the Scriptures that there is the peace "with" God, and there is having the peace "of" God. We can have both of these at the same time, but not always. 

We have peace with God because we have been reconciled back to God due to HIs death and shedding of blood on the cross. The peace of God is something we know by walking in faithful fellowship with Him on a daily basis. 

If you are living a casual Christian life and walking in lukewarmness, you can never know the peace of God. Jesus Christ is our peace! Knowing Him in your everyday circumstances allows you to know the peace that passes all understanding!

Join us in this journey of Peace!

We continue discovering how we can maintain a heart that doesn't drift into lukewarmness as we travel through the Beatitudes. 

Today we look at Matt. 5:8 where Jesus proclaims that blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God. James tells us that this is pure and undefiled religion, that we remain unstained by the world. 

The world produces complacency when allowed to defile the gospel message and the faith we are called to walk in. Out of our hearts come the foundations and essence of everything we are and live by. 

Join with us as we go through God's word and discover what it means to have a pure heart.

With all that has gone on and continues to go on, marriages have come under fire from all directions. Couples can barely find time to take a breath, much less find time for one another, and become one as God intended for us to be. 

Work, kids, appointments, the house, the yard, the neighbors, and the church all seem to be crying out for our attention. 

We can feel our relationship slipping away, but it gets pushed to the bottom of our priority list, because of the next emergency that arises. 

We search Google and YouTube for anyone that might have the best and quickest answer, but it all seems to be nothing but a word salad that only brings more confusion and frustration. 

I pray that you would take just a few minutes to listen to what the gospel has given us, that we might find some healing, hope, and joy in our marriages. 

As we open up the gospel, I want you to see the main theme in this Marriage Counseling 101 time together. We live out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If our marriages are faltering, it is because our relationship with Jesus Christ is faltering. 

Let the gospel speak new life into your marriage!

No, we are not going to talk about the Christian song group! 

We are going to look into the gospel and what it has to say about the mercy of God and the transforming power it should have on our lives. 

When we forget or take for granted the great mercy that has been extended to us from the Father of all mercies, we will definitely drift into lukewarm casual Christianity. 

We have been examining ourselves as we travel through the Beatitudes to see if we have possibly slipped into being lukewarm as the word of God portrays the last church age to be in the book of Revelation. 

We've examined ourselves by asking, are we walking in humility, are we maintaining a sensitivity to the sin that we sometimes justify, do we have a gentle spirit, do we hunger and thirst for righteousness, and today, do we live with a heart of mercy because we have been shown mercy?

We can't live out one of these without the other. Humility is the foundation, but each of the rest builds upon the others.

Are you living a lukewarm life? Has your church become lukewarm in its dedication to the Risen Savior?

Our bodies were created in such a way by God, that we have a natural response to satisfying our hunger and thirst needs. We can become unhealthy physically when we attempt to satisfy them with unhealthy food or drinks. 

But God has also created us with a desire for Him. He tells us that He has placed eternity within each one of us and that the eternal void can only be satisfied by His abiding presence.

He tells us that we can find satisfaction if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. But like our attempts to satisfy our physical hunger and thirst with those things that are unhealthy, we many times try to satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst with self-righteousness. 

An unhealthy spiritual life will lead us to that place of casual Christianity and lukewarmness. Unhealthy eating habits lead to obesity, diabetes, heart issues, and so many other debilitating health issues.

Self-righteousness leads to compromise, complacency, a hardened heart, and a falling away from the grace that was provided for us on the cross. 

How are you satisfying your hunger and thirst?